Beeswax from the cappings

I have read a few articles about using the capping's that were left behind after harvesting the honey, all agreed that you needed to make sure you get the last drop of honey out of them which we did,

 and the yield was 10lb, can you believe that?

Next they tell you to let the bees clean the capping's, so we put them out on a tray and in a bowlon the patio to see what would happen! It was like a swarm, the bees came from nowhere, the smell of the honey obviously was so strong that they came and found it. It took them just 2 days to take away every last drop of honey leaving me with what looked like shavings (the wax).

As I have never dealt with beeswax before I decided to have a go last night whilst Mel was out, the last thing I needed was his opinion or to be told I was doing it wrong!! I like to make mistakes on my own lol

With a large saucepan of water on the stove, and another pan to act as a double boiler on top I placed some of the shavings into the pan, slowly and surely they started to melt but instead of a nice clear wax that I should be getting, I had a lot of debris and some sludge in the mix,

 time to read about it again!! what was I doing wrong?

I soon realised that I should have washed the capping's first, to late now! so I continued on but added a mug full of water to the pan, apparently the wax separates easily in the water.

The liquid then needed straining to remove all the bits/sludge so I found an old jelly bag from my preserving days and strung it up so I could empty the hot liquid into it, placing a silicone tray below I pored it in slowly to avoid any splashes of wax.

Soon the wax/water mix started to drip out the bottom of the bag, leaving the gunk behind and as it cooled the wax hardened and the water separated. I was onto a winner!!! or so I thought.

I finished that whole batch and then took a look at my wax, it was clean no debris, so that had worked but something was still wrong, the wax was pliable not brittle so back to the text book I went.

I cold smell honey in the wax and that should all have been washed out, so I decided to re melt it all again in the double boiler and add more water in the hope that it would separate.

This time the colour of the wax was a lovely pale shade of yellow and the water that was left behind had the distinct honey smell I think it is now OK.

This morning I had another look at my handiwork and I am quite pleased the wax is hard and brittle and looks like it should with no smell of honey.

Next time though I will definitely wash it first, it would have made the process so much more easier and quicker. You live and learn don't you!!

Now, what to do with that lovely wax, candles, tea lights or polish??  any of them would make great Christmas presents, but what to choose....